Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-03-03
DAKOTA IN WINTER.

DAKOTA IN WINTER.
THE HOUSES KEPT TOO WARM
DURING THE COOL SEASON.
characteristics of the Country and It's
Inhabitants-How Land is Taken UP.
The New Claim Method.
Especial Correspondence
HURON, ID. T., Feb. FL have one fault
to find with the living h%ere-they keep their
houses too warm. In the far south my stand
ing complaint was that the houses were too
cold. In south Georgia and Florida / never
could keep warm indoors in cold weather
unless / went to bed, BUT 1 could go out and
walk myself warm any ordinary winter day.
windows, and, the stove takes up
as much room as a piano else
where; and in it the blaze dieth
not and the fire is not quenched day or night
especially if it is a hay burner. The CON
sequence is, one has to be careful of his wraps
in going out doors; and / only wonder that
coughs and colds are so rare. II one should
go from Cuba to Canada in December, as fast
as a lightning train could take him, the doc
tors would call him a lunatic; yet we do
worse than that many times a day. By steam
coils and base burners We create an artificial
climate over the whole house, then we go at
one step from Cuba to Canada, from 10 degs.
above to 10 degs. below outdoors. Good
clothing protects the body, but what of the
delicate lining of the nose and lungs? All 1
can say is that / have not had the sign of a
cold since l entered the territory, and there
Is less catarTl than in any eastern section /
have visited. l used to think it was the
thing to send invalids south in winter; / am
now satisfied that the average results are not
for the better, and perhaps, in the cruel kind
ness Of nature, it is necessary to kill off the
weak and strengthen the strong. By and by,
perhaps, civilization will reach a point where
oil weddings will voluntarily give up and
die for the benefit Of the race; but I have per
sonal reasons for being glad that 1t will not
be so in my time.
Despite the Geld, immigrants are pouring
into this country as if it were q section OF
Eden. The record of the Huron and office Is
amazing. In the four years since it was
established there have been located and filed
on 10, ISL prescriptions, II ,914 homesteads and
1878 tree claims, a total of 33,443 quarter sec
tions and nearly as many families, besides the
rapidly growing towns. For three month.
the Chicago and Northwestern road brought
six coaches full Of immigrants daily, besides
a much larger number who came on freighf
trains with their household stuff. 1t i
claimed that in one season that road brough
here $4,000 immigrants and ~prospectors. Fol
one year two land offices of Dakota did NOR,
business than all those in the other territoris
and all the far west states except Kansas ant
Nebraska. 1t wastbe great invasion Of cen
trail Dakota-a srush" not equaled probably
in the most exciting days Of California o.
Pixies Peak. Fora while vast tracts wer,
taken as fast as they could be surveyed; ane
) then whole townships were occupied b,
3 squatters in advance of the survey, they de
Gliding disputed claims by lot and agreeing t
stand by each other for legal location. On
township fifty miles away was taken in
body by IA squatters, one for each quartz
section; and when the survey was complete,
they marched in as a battalion and filed. /
is scarcely necessary to add that no late
corners interfered with them.
Beadle county, OF which Huron is the cap
ital, is seven townships long and five wide
thus containing 1850 square miles; SO tn
land settled in this one district in four year
is equivalent to seven counties like this, O
about eighteen of the average in Indiana
From here to the Missouri river all the GOO
land at all convenient to the railroad is taken
but northwest there is much fine land ye
vacant, especially in Faulk county. ]
branch railroad from Redield, on th
Chicago and Northwestern road, is goin
through that county early in til
spring. OF course, every intending in
migrant knows all about the presumption an
homestead laws, but the true claim metho
is not SO well known. To get 160 acres b
presumption costs 500 in payment and fee
to get a homestead, is SIS in fee!
to get a true claim the same {
a homestead, with longer time an
more work, but a man has a small fortun
when he gets it. You must first file as for.
homestead and break five acres of sod the fir
year. The second year cultivate that fy
acres and break another; the third veal
plant the first five in timber, cultivate til
second five and break a third, and the fourt
year plant the second five; then you hay
filled the requirements of the law. You ca
plant either by seeds or cuttings; and mui
pillow among the young trees enough to kee
i weeds and grass down till the trees get lare
n enough to shade the ground. You can nial
final proof and get Uncle Sans warrant
deed at the end of eight years, or any tin
before the end of fourteen years; and unit
you do, your land is exempt from all take
This item alone will more than repay the CO
of planting, and ten acres of timber is as Ii
tie as a man should plant anyhow
even il he takes homestead or presumption.
My first impression was that this countr
was monotoncusly level; but that is all in I'll
eye. As a matter OF fact, the James rive
runs in a trough from near Mime Walau I
Vermillion on the Missouri: and though I'll
sides of the trough rise very gradually, the
rise high. For instance, this city is only ,2s
feet above tide, or GS5 feet above Cbicag,
but westward the country rises GOO feet
i sixty miles, and eastward but little les
The summit of the divide east of here is 81
2 feet higher than this, while the water level
!, the Missouri, at Pierre, is 100 feet high,
"a than the town plot OF Huron. OF course I'll
!, Missouri has to get down hill very rapidly
make the descent from there to Vermlliol
where the James joins it; yet the James h,
! a fall of but one foot in five miles of /
course. 1t might be made a canal throne
its whole length il it were not so discoura,
ingly crooked. Its crooks are all within
narrow range, however, confined to the in
! mediate valley and between that and the fir
level of the trough there is a considerab
bluff. The SUBMITS OF the dividing ridge
both east and west of here, are called co,
teaus, which may be freely translated bacl
bones.